Social Rank Strategies in Hierarchical Relationships

Social rank theorists propose that threat appraisals evoke escalation behavior toward subordinates and de-escalation behavior toward superiors. These hypotheses were examined among records of behavior sampled ecologically from the work environments of 90 individuals. At the level of the event, situa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2002-08, Vol.83 (2), p.425-433
Main Authors: Fournier, Marc A, Moskowitz, D. S, Zuroff, David C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aggression
Analysis of Variance
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Cooperative Behavior
Criticism
Cues
Dominance Hierarchy
Dominance-Subordination
Employee Interaction
Employment
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hierarchy
Hierarchy, Social
Human
Human behaviour
Humans
Interpersonal relations
Linear Models
Male
Models, Psychological
Professional relationships
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Risk
Sex Factors
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Social status
Social Structure
Social systems
Strategies
Threat
Work environment
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Summary:Social rank theorists propose that threat appraisals evoke escalation behavior toward subordinates and de-escalation behavior toward superiors. These hypotheses were examined among records of behavior sampled ecologically from the work environments of 90 individuals. At the level of the event, situated threat appraisals (feeling criticized) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals tended to quarrel when criticized by subordinates and to submit when criticized by superiors. At the level of the person, aggregated rank appraisals (feeling inferior) predicted different kinds of behavior across status situations. Individuals who typically felt more inferior tended to quarrel more frequently with subordinates and to submit more frequently with superiors. Findings implicated inferiority and threat as fundamental dimensions underlying the behavior of the social rank system.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.425